by Nicole Helm
“What do you mean? Of course they’re open. Cody, what is wrong?” Hysteria tinged her voice.
“Nina, it’s okay. Listen to me. You can’t panic, all right?”
“The entire side of your face is covered in blood. And you’re asking me if your eyes are open. I need to call an ambulance.”
“No. No ambulance. I can move. I just can’t see exactly.”
“Cody. God.” She sucked in an audible breath. “You can’t see anything?”
He shook his head, winced. “Just gray. Some shadows, but... I can’t see. I crashed.”
“You crashed.” He could hear the way she was fighting against the hysteria, struggling for control. “You won’t be able to get out your side. It hit a tree and it’s blocked. We’ll have to crawl out the passenger side.”
“There was a truck following us. Are they coming?” He heard her move though he couldn’t see what she was doing.
“I can’t see much of anything. Between the air bags and the broken windows. It’s hard to say. But we can’t move. You have a head injury, and God knows what else. You’re not supposed to move.”
“Well, I can pick between dying from my father’s goons or moving a head injury. I’ll take moving a head injury.”
She made a pained noise, but he couldn’t worry too much about offending her. There had been a truck following them.
“Okay. Okay.” He heard her suck in a breath and let it out. “Can you unbuckle yourself?”
He moved and though it was tricky between the pain and dizziness and not being able to see, he managed to unlatch the belt. “Get the gun out of my glove compartment.”
He could hear her following instructions, but his vision wasn’t magically clearing up. He couldn’t focus on that. He couldn’t get lost in the now when surviving the next moment was paramount.
How are you going to keep her safe if you can’t see?
He’d just have to find a way. “You know how to use it?”
“I can figure it out. Where’s the safety?”
He held out his hands and she gingerly placed the gun across his palm. He rubbed his fingers over the gun, pointing out the necessary features.
“It’s been years since I’ve actually done it, and even after Grandma Pauline and Duke taught us, I was never a very good shot.”
“Well, unless my sight magically reappears you’re all we’ve got.” He handed the gun back to her. “Now, I want you to crawl in the back. I’m going to go out first and—”
“You can’t go out first, Cody. You can’t see.”
He opened his mouth to argue. He was the first to jump into a bad situation, the first to risk everything for the safety of others. That was his training and a promise he’d made to himself a long time ago.
But he couldn’t see.
“They might be waiting for us to get out. They might grab you, or even hurt you the minute you step out there,” Cody replied, but he knew he was only delaying the inevitable. If she wanted to get out of the car, he had no way to stop her.
“I think if they wanted to hurt us they could have done it already if they’re out there. I’ll carefully creep out and see if I can see anything. You stay put.”
Stay put. Stay put? He’d never stayed put in his entire life. But he didn’t have much of a choice since reaching out yielded him nothing but air. He could hear movements, but he couldn’t see.
The simple fact lodged like panic in his gut, so he closed his eyes. One step at a time. Always take everything one step at a time.
The first was to get out of the car.
“I don’t see anyone,” Nina said. “We’re in something of a ravine. They had to have seen us go over, but if they’re watching from the road, the car is positioned in such a way we should be able to get out without detection. The car is cover. Let’s try to get you out. Now you’ll have to crawl over the console. Can you—”
“Just tell me if I’m heading the wrong way,” he interrupted through gritted teeth. He moved his body and used his hands to feel his way over the console and into the passenger seat. His body throbbed, but the pain there had nothing on the pain in his head, which led him to believe the head injury was the only major injury he’d sustained.
Once he felt the edge of the seat, he got himself into a normal sitting position on it and carefully slung one leg outside, feeling around for the ground. Once he gained purchase, he managed to launch himself onto his feet.
The wave of dizziness threatened to take him down, but Nina’s arms came around him.
“I can’t call for help. My phone was crushed in the crash. I don’t think... I don’t think my text to Jamison sent in time,” she said, her voice cracking at the end.
“Mine’s in my back pocket.”
“Don’t. I’ll get it,” she said when he tried to reach for it. “We need to get you cleaned up,” she muttered as she slid his phone out of his pocket. “How do you have service? I’m calling 911.”
“You can’t call 911. Call Jamison.”
“You can’t see!”
She really needed to stop saying that. He huffed out a breath. “We can’t call an ambulance, but I know someone who can help. Go into my contacts.” He wavered on his feet feeling unaccountably weak. But then he talked her through finding the hidden contacts on his phone and had her call Shay. She put the phone in his hand and he held it to his nonbloody ear.
“You’ve got to stop—” Shay answered.
“I’ve got a serious problem, Shay. I need help.”
“I can’t help you, Cody. I’ve done everything I can and—”
“I’ve been in an accident. I’m pretty sure one or more of Ace’s men will have us soon enough. We just need some extrication.”
“Extrication. We?” He could hear her mutter something irritable. “Coordinates?”
“Hold on.” He turned toward Nina, only knowing where she was because she still had her arm around him helping him stay upright. “Where are we?”
“I don’t... I don’t know.”
“Are you okay?” Shay demanded in his ear.
“Little hurt.”
“How little?”
Cody paused.
“That bad, huh?”
He ignored that and explained to her where they’d been driving. About where he thought they went off the highway.
“Hang tight,” Shay said, and he could hear her typing away on the computer she was likely hunched over. “I’ll see what I can do. We’ve got a place not far from there. I’ll send you a map.”
“I can’t...see.”
“You can’t what?”
“I’m sure it’s temporary, but at the moment I can’t see. At all.”
“I can read a map,” Nina muttered.
“Who is that?” Shay demanded in his ear.
“Nina.”
Shay swore. “I’ll send the map. Have her follow it. I’ll see if I can get anyone out to you.”
“A doctor of some kind wouldn’t be turned down.”
“Ask for the moon why don’t you. Get moving. Run into trouble... Hell, I don’t know. Just—”
“We’ll figure it out. A map and some help and we’ll figure it out.”
“Turn on your locator.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Things are really bad when you ma’am me. Be careful, Cody.” She disconnected and Cody held out the phone. He talked Nina through turning on his locator that he should have deleted after North Star had kicked him out but hadn’t.
Thank God for that.
“Cody.”
“If you tell me I need an ambulance one more time—”
“Someone’s coming,” Nina said in low tones. “And they’ve got a very big gun.”
Chapter Twelve
The man picking his way down the ravine took his time,
and fear paralyzed Nina for longer than she wanted to admit.
Cody was blind, and so bloody and weak she wanted to break down and cry.
But much like that night when someone had broken into her house, she couldn’t let fear win. She had to protect the people she loved. She’d killed for Brianna, and she had no doubt she would kill for Cody.
But that didn’t make it easy, and it certainly didn’t lessen the fear.
“How many?” Cody demanded.
“I only see one. How many were in the truck following us?”
“I only saw one, but there could have been more. You’re going to have to shoot him before he gets any closer.”
Nina swallowed. She’d always been a terrible shot, but she had to try.
“Use the car as a shield. Don’t open yourself up to getting shot back,” Cody was instructing. “You’ve got a few bullets, so just keep pulling the trigger till you hit.”
“And if I don’t?”
“We fight.”
Nina looked at Cody. He couldn’t fight. He was blind, weak, probably from the loss of all that blood. She had to shoot this person. Which meant she couldn’t shake or be frozen like she currently was.
“Talk me through it.”
He didn’t even hesitate. He nodded. “Find a place where you can see him, but you’re hidden as much as possible behind the car.”
She did so, and it took too many seconds for her to realize he couldn’t see that she’d done it. She had to tell him.
“How do you aim?”
“Look for the white circle, then you’re trying to get that lined up with the open square. Get it on our guy. Take a deep breath, then pull the trigger. Keep shooting till he stops moving.”
Luckily the terrain was uneven at best, which kept the man’s progress slow. He was dressed all in black and was much bigger than the man she’d killed in her house back in Dyner.
“Breathe. Breathe and count. Whatever keeps you calm and steady,” Cody was explaining in a calm, quiet voice. “You can do it.”
She took deep breaths and let them out. She still shook, but as she lined up the sight to the man who got closer with every second, she focused on Cody’s quiet, steady words behind her, talking her through it over and over again.
The first shot shook her some, and didn’t hit the target. The man didn’t even stop his forward movement as he lifted his own gun and pointed it toward the car. She swore.
“It’s okay. Just line up and try again. Make sure you’ve got cover.”
She glanced quickly at Cody. “Get lower,” she instructed. Because she was their only hope. She knew Ace’s men would kill her. They might leave Cody alive since he was Ace’s son, but he wouldn’t be treated well.
Brianna needed both her parents for once in her life.
The sound of the other man’s gun firing pierced the air only a second before the crash of a bullet hitting the car scared a scream out of her.
“Are you okay?” Cody demanded.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she muttered, lining up her sight. She focused on the fact that she had to save them, for Brianna, and shot again.
This time the man staggered. He didn’t fall, but by the way he looked down at his leg she was pretty sure she’d gotten a hit.
“Hit?”
Nina nodded, then remembered Cody couldn’t see. “He’s still moving, but he’s definitely hurt.”
“Shoot again.”
She did so, once again focusing on Brianna and doing what she had to do. This time when the bullet landed, the man staggered back and fell to his knees.
“You have to kill him, Nina. It’s the only way.”
She nodded, and though the shakes had taken her over again, she breathed. In and out until she was steady. She aimed for the man’s head.
He fell back immediately. Nina could barely hold on to the gun, she was shaking so hard. “Oh God. Oh God.” Somehow in the course of a week or so she’d killed two men.
“It’s okay. Focus, Nina. We’ve got to get to safety. Look at my phone.” He explained to her where to find the map the person he’d called would have sent and though she struggled to control her limbs, she managed to do what he told her to do.
“I can’t read this,” she muttered as the map came into view all lines and blinking dots she didn’t understand.
“Press the arrow in the corner,” Cody instructed.
She did so and nothing happened. “Now what?”
“We move. The red blinking dot will show us where we’re going.”
“What is all this high-tech stuff?”
“I’ll explain once we have some shelter.” He made a frustrated noise. “You’re going to have to lead me.”
She’d killed two men. They were stranded. Brianna was at the ranch. Safe. Thank God. At the ranch.
“Your brothers are going to come looking for us.”
“Send them a message. Brianna is their first priority. Text. Quickly. Use code.”
“Code?”
“We can’t be too careful at this point. Someone might have followed Jamison and Tucker too—which seems likely if only one man came after us. So text Dev. Type this exactly. 827 period B#1 dash 672.”
“What does all that mean?” Nina asked as she typed it all in just as he’d said.
“Dev will know. That’s what’s important. Now...” He trailed off, frowning.
“You’re going to have to hold my hand, I guess,” Nina said. It was the only way she could think to lead him. “The ground is really uneven here though, so we have to go slow so you don’t fall.”
He muttered a few curses under his breath. She reached over and took his hand. She swallowed against fear, against the pain at seeing him so hurt. “I have to watch the map, so you have to inch forward slowly feeling the ground before you take a step. I can’t carry you if you twist an ankle.”
“I won’t twist my damn ankle.”
Nina studied the land in front of them, then the map. It’d be a miracle if they made it ten feet, let alone the length of this map’s route. A miracle if no other men with guns showed up. A miracle if they survived.
But she’d killed two men. Two men who’d tried to kill her simply because of who she’d fallen in love with as a teenager. Simply because of the father of her child.
Who was blind and bloody and weak at the moment.
Which meant she’d find that miracle no matter what.
* * *
IT TOOK HOURS. Cody didn’t need a clock or sight to know that. It was interminably slow progress, and Nina’s constant encouragement was starting to fade and sound hopelessly empty.
But she kept leading him forward, kept muttering over the map.
He fell twice thanks to the rocky terrain. The second time he got up, he almost passed out, but somehow Nina managed to hold him up while he breathed through the wave of pain trying to take him under.
“Oh, there’s something ahead,” Nina said. “A cabin.” Her voice was raspy. They were both dehydrated. He knew he had lost blood too rapidly, but they didn’t have time to fix that. They had to get to safety.
But if Nina saw a cabin it had to be the place Shay had mentioned on the phone.
Nina stopped on a dime. “Someone opened the door,” she whispered.
“Describe.”
“Uh, medium height. It’s a woman, I think. Blonde. She’s wearing all black. No weapons that I can see.”
“Shay.”
“Who?”
“The woman I called. She’s here to help.”
“She’s coming this way. Are you sure she’s going to help us?”
It took only a few seconds, but soon he heard Shay’s voice.
“Lord, you weren’t kidding. You need some help.”
His knees almost gave out when he felt Shay’s hand tak
e his free one. Somehow he and Nina had made it. Alive.
So far. There was still a way to go, but this was such a huge step.
“Come on. We’ll get you inside and cleaned up ASAP,” Shay said, her voice no-nonsense and sure, which was a great relief.
“She needs to get checked out too,” Cody managed to say despite how raw his throat felt.
“I’m fine,” Nina insisted as they kept moving. God he wanted to lie down.
“We’ll get you both looked at,” Shay returned reassuringly. “Jennings wouldn’t approve any of the medical team to come with me, so I had to go for the next best thing.”
“Holy hell, brother, what did you do to yourself?”
“Brady?” Cody nearly collapsed at the sound of his brother’s voice, but strong arms were holding him up. Not Nina’s slim ones or even Shay’s capable ones, but his brother’s.
“Brianna—”
Brady quickly cut Nina off. “Everyone’s at the ranch and accounted for except you two. Tucker and Jamison had tails, but no tampering on their car. Probably because they’d parked next to Gage at the prison. They lost the tails and got home. Everyone, including the Knights, are staying at the ranch until further notice, and Brianna is absolutely under someone’s watch 24-7.”
While Brady explained that to Nina, he helped Cody sit down. Cody could feel his brother’s hands on his face and Cody tried not to wince or give away how badly everything hurt.
“I’m not sure I’ve got the skills for this,” Brady said in practically a whisper. Cody assumed he was trying to keep Nina from hearing.
“Let’s get him cleaned up.” Shay’s voice. “I can maybe call Betty and see if she can video chat us through making sure he’s repairable.”
“Of course he’s repairable,” Nina snapped.
Someone took his hand, and it only took a second or two to realize it was Nina. She murmured encouraging words to him as Brady and Shay spoke in low tones about the extent of his injuries. The pain while they cleaned up his face was nearly unbearable, so he focused on Nina’s hand in his and the fact everyone else he loved was keeping Brianna safe.
“I can stitch you up,” Brady finally said. “But we don’t have any local anesthesia. The real concern is the loss of sight. That could be caused by bleeding in the brain.”
